Credit: Michael Harvey
Born in Paris, France, in 1975.
She lives and works in La Ferté-Gaucher, France.
Sonia Hamza is a Franco-Moroccan artist whose work explores the creation and passing on of multiple identities. Through an approach that blends photography, textile and visual writing, her work explores the dynamics of displacement, métissage and narrative in relation to place.
After graduating from ENSAA Duperré in Paris in fashion design in 1997, she went on to specialise in knitwear at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design in London. She further developed her photography skills by assisting the French photographer Jonathan Abbou and refining her technique with the Thai photographer Manit Sriwanichpoom. Simultaneously, she undertook training in tapestry weaving with the artist Claude-Marie Thibert-Boutou, developing a hybrid artistic approach that interweaves photographic imagery with textile materials. Gradually, embroidery emerged as her favoured medium.
She has exhibited her work at various festivals and exhibitions across Europe, Asia and North Africa, including the Black & White Audiovisual Festival in Porto (2013), the Yangon Photo Festival in Myanmar (2015), the Best Portfolio Review Award at the Hamburg Photography Triennial in Germany (2015), the Bangkok Photo Biennale in Thailand (2018), the Encontros da Imagem in Braga (2022 – second Discovery Award), the Galerie Omnius in Arles (2023), the Abla Ababou Gallery in Rabat (2023–2024) and the Institut Français de Tétouan in Morocco (2024). She has been invited to participate in the Bangkok Art Biennale 2026.
In 2025, she will be in residence at the Goethe-Institut/Procur.Arte in Lisbon, where she will continue to develop Pause Longue, a photographic project initiated after the Covid-19 pandemic which questions our perception of time, memory and distance.
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Permission must be requested to use any images from this site.
My artistic practice is rooted in the sensitive reinterpretation of multiple identities through a combination of photographic, textile, ceramic, narrative and documentary techniques. Drawing on family roots, travels and emotional experiences, each project emerges from a sense of displacement — physical, emotional or symbolic — and unfolds as an exploration of the tensions between the self and the other, and between here and elsewhere.
At the intersection of the personal and the collective, I examine the visible and invisible traces we carry: family legacies, the scars of exile, the contradictions of mixed heritage and generational silences. Rather than viewing these fragmented narratives as gaps to be filled, I approach them as raw materials to be activated. Slowness, blur and thread — whether textile or narrative — become the vehicles of a visual language in which error, accident and emotion all have a place.
My approach is embodied, artisanal and often intuitive. It seeks to give form to that which eludes us: faltering memories, silenced voices and displaced gazes. By delving into the margins, interstices and dissonances of my world, I propose an affective cartography—not to deliver a fixed truth, but to allow what resonates in the void to emerge.
My work is thus rooted in an ongoing exploration of otherness and reconciliation, employing frameworks that render the invisible visible and give voice to the unsaid.
Education & Training
1994–1997 – BTS in Fashion Design, ENSAA Duperré, Paris, France
1997–1998 – Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Arts, Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design, London, UK
2000–2001 – “Advanced Course in Anatomy and Morphology with Live Model" at ENSAA Duperré, Paris, France
2004–2005 - Professional training course on “One-Piece Garment Cutting” with Mme Sévin-Doering
2009 – Workshop on Negative Hand-Coloring at Jonathan Abbou’s Studio, Montreuil, France
2010 – Training program in “Analog Darkroom Techniques and Digital Studio Photography,” Levels 1 and 2, City of Paris, France
2013 – Tapestry Weaving Workshop with artist Claude-Marie Thibert-Boutou, Charentenay, France
2024 - Ceramics Workshop with artist Amin Bakhi, Artisanal Village, Tétouan, Morocco
Solo Exhibitions
2024 Pause Longue – Autumn Time, Institut Français of Tétouan, Morocco
2024 Shades of forgotten steps, APICIL, Paris, France
2023 Nippon Kiss ( The colours of Tokyo and Polaroïds ), Business Center Paris Victoire, France
2023 Wool song, Omnius Gallery, Arles, France
2021 Bangkok’s Chinatown beats to its own drum, www.parisartistes.com
2019 Nippon Kiss, Médiathèque and MAPA, Château-Thierry, France
2018 Nippon Kiss, Espace 36, Saint-Omer, France
2017 Nippon Kiss, Soy Sauce Factory, Bangkok, Thailand
2017 Passe-moi le ciel !, Galleries’ night, Bangkok, Thailand
2016 Nippon Kiss, Les Cuizines, Chelles, France
2011 Workshop, 59Rivoli, Paris, France
Group Exhibitions
2026 Bangkok Art Biennale, curator Adulaya Hoontrakul, Thailand
2024 Art Week Miami Beach, The Betsy Hotel, Miami Beach, USA
2024 Points de vue, Abla Ababou Gallery, Rabat, Morocco
2024 19 th Biennale of Contemporary Art, Maison des Arts Plastiques, Champigny-sur-Marne, France
2023 Memories of our Cultures, The Betsy Hotel, Miami Beach, USA
2023 Un Air d’Été, Abla Ababou Gallery, Rabat, Morocco
2022 32 nd Festival Internacional de Fotografia Encontros da Imagem, Braga, Portugal
2021 Vibrations, Bastille Design Center, Paris, France
2020 14th Julia Margaret Cameron Award, FotoNostrum Gallery, Barcelona, Spain.
2018 The French Connection, Bangkok Photo Biennale, Bangkok University Gallery, Thailand
2017 Flâneur Retrospective, Format International Photography Festival, Derby, UK
2017 New Invasion Festival, Torres Vedras, Portugal
2017 Objectif Femmes, 9th District City Hall, Paris, France
2016 Ilsan Artistics, Goyan Aram Nuri Art Center, Seoul, South Korea
2016 6Factory, by ParisArtists, Clichy-la-Garenne, France
2016 Flâneur, Jardim do Príncipe Real, Lisbon, Portugal
2016 Elles Aussi au Silo, Le Silo U1, Château-Thierry, France
2016 SlideLuck Trieste, Museum of the Territory of Poreč, Croatia, Jun
2016 SlideLuck Tokyo
2015 SlideLuck Fez, SlideLuck Roma & Bitume, SlideLuck Madrid & Manila, SlideLuck Trieste
2015 7th Yangon Photo Festival, Yangon, Myanmar
2014 Open Studio, Sefrou, Morocco
2013 Audiovisual Black & White Festival, Porto, Portugal
2012 Tezukuriichi and Aozorakoten Art Markets, Tokyo, Japan
2011 59°, 59Rivoli, Paris, France
2010 Mickeyland, Galerie Art Présent, Paris, France
2010 59Rivoli, Paris, France
2007 La Villa de Mademoiselle B (Barbie), Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris, France
Awards & Distinctions
2023 Prix du Public, 2nd edition of En Aparté, Paris, France
2022 2nd Prize Discovery Award, 32 nd Festival Internacional de Fotografia Encontros da Imagem, Braga, Portugal
2017 Prize “Identity,” Fix Photo Festival Awards, London, UK
2017 Short listed, Cap Prize, Switzerland
2015 Best Portfolio Review Award, Hamburg Triennial of Photography, Germany
2014 Short listed, Still Life, Black & White Spider Awards
2014 3rd Prize, Silken Photo Award
2013 3rd Prize, Métropole competition, Myphotoagency.com
2013 Award, Printemps de la Photographie, Romorantin, France
2009 2nd Prize, Paris vous sourit, GALERIE VU’, Paris, France
2009 2nd Prize, Cantine Argentine Photography Competition
2001 1st Prize, Multisensory Board for Cartier “Eau” fragrance, Créations Aromatiques
Residencies
2025 Goethe Institute with Procurarte, Lisbon, Portugal.
2024 Maison des Chapitres, France.
2023 Institut Français of Tétouan, Morocco.
2019 Lizières, Épaux-Bézu, France.
2017 ProcurArte, New Invasion Festival, Torres Vedras, Portugal.
2016 Project189, Bangkok, Thailand
2016 Institut Français de Lisbonne with ProcurArte, Portugal.
2014 AIR Culture Vultures, Sefrou, Morocco.
2010 59Rivoli, Paris, France
Bibliography & Media
2024 Podcast Les passagers de Tanger, interview by Philippe Guiguet-Bologne. Listen
2024 Article on leconomiste.com, opening of Pause longue – Autumn Time
2024 Article on libe.ma, Pause longue – Autumn Time
2024 Moroccan channel Medi1, L’Afrique en culture, Pause Longue – Autumn Time. Podcast of the program
2024 Article by MAP (Moroccan Press Agency), opening of Pause longue – Autumn Time. Arabic version
2024 Article in Arabic on Halainfo, opening of Pause Longue – Autumn Time
2024 Article on linformation.ma, opening of Pause Longue – Autumn Time
2024 Article on sahafati.com, opening of Pause longue – Autumn Time
2024 Article on aujourdhui.ma, opening of Pause Longue – Autumn Time
2024 Article on tanger-experience.com, Pause longue – Autumn Time
2023 Interview by Morocco World News, Pause Longue - Summer Time
2023 Article on Fisheyemagazine.fr, “L’Amour pixelisé de Sonia Hamza” by Cassandre Thomas
2023 Portfolio in Openeye No. 30: Chinatown ne suit pas le métronome de Bangkok, Pierre Evrard
2022 Portfolio Listening to the Light in Lisbon, Edge of Humanity Magazine
2017 Article in Expat Life in Thailand (April/May): “Meet the Artist: The Irrepressible Charm of Sonia Hamza”
2017 Announcement in Gavroche Thaïlande Magazine No. 268: Nippon Kiss
2016 Article in àCT 15 Année Cultur’elles – Femmes artistes
2016 Articles in Union (11/07), Isabel Da Sylva; Autant en emporte la Marne No. 372; and TMA Vision, “Elles aussi au Silo”
2015 Article on slideluckeditorial.com, “Spotlight of the Week”
2015 Article in Huffington Post Italia: “21 photos to remind us what community means. Slideluck, between art and social dinners, warms the heart of Rome again” by Alessandra Corsini
2014 Article in Artension No. 126, “The End of the Doomed Artists?”, Sophie Blachet
2007 France 3, Report PARIS DE FEMMES, directed by Charlotte Roustang, broadcast in March 2008
Contact
sonia.hamza@gmail.com
00 33 6 08 68 41 16